The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to a phase shedding converter system having reduced output ripple.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Changing power demands of electronics (e.g., IHS motherboards) can vary by an order of magnitude. Electronic converters may provide power to the electronics and are designed to provide such a large fluctuation in power consumption. It is well known in the art that a converter/regulator such as, a buck converter, has an increased efficiency with an increased number of phases in operation converting the power for consumption. As the phase count increases, a heavy load efficiency improves, but a light load efficiency degrades. To overcome this problem, the industry is moving toward phase shedding of the extra phases in periods of lower demand for power. Phase shedding improves the efficiency of the converter system by operating only the number of phases necessary for a given load demand. However, a problem is how to turn the phases off and on without creating excessive and possibly damaging ripple voltage at the converter output. Simply turning off or dropping a phase or multiple phases in the converter during a load may cause excessive ripple output that may damage the load (e.g., a processor). One solution is to add extra capacitance at the output to filter the output ripple. However, extra capacitors can be costly and also can be physically large and take up valuable space in the electronics.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved phase shedding converter with ripple minimization which avoids the problems set forth above.